Reclaiming Turag River<\/em>
\nBIWTA takes down illegal building, walls<\/strong>
\nA Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) team in a drive yesterday knocked down a building and six boundary walls and
\ndetained nine workers from seven dredgers and a sand carrying vessel in the Turag river.
\nDhaka district Magistrate Abu Sayeed of the team also seized six sections of a pipe, approximately 100 metres in length, used in pumping out sand from rivers and auctioned off a pile of sand for Tk one lakh.
\nThe second day’s drive of the two-day campaign was carried out along a 15-kilometre stretch from Sinnirtek to Ashulia to free the river from grabbers.
\nThe team was led by BIWTA Director (port) Md Shafiqul Haque and Magistrate Sayeed and comprised a tugboat Agropathik, workboat Argroz and 60 workers.
\nThe building and boundary walls were constructed by illegally filling up the river and the pipe was seized for being used to illegally extract sand from the river, said Turag and Ashulia police station sources.
\nThe sand pile was auctioned off as the owner had illegally deposited it on the shore of the Turag while the workers were detained for illegally extracting sand from the river. The workers were released without any case being filed, added the sources.
\nNewly appointed BIWTA Chairman Dr Md Shamsuddoha Khandakar earlier said he would make rivers around the capital free from pollution and encroachment within a year.<\/p>\n

-With The Daily Star<\/span> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reclaiming Turag River BIWTA takes down illegal building, walls A Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) team in a drive yesterday knocked down a building and six boundary walls and detained nine workers from seven dredgers and a sand carrying vessel in the Turag river. Dhaka district Magistrate Abu Sayeed of the team also seized … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[4299,199,9296,475,563],"yoast_head":"\n